Hill of Doors by Robin Robertson
Charged with strangeness and beauty, Hill of Doors is a haunted and haunting book, where each successive poem seems a shape conjured from the shadows, and where the uncanny is made physically present. The collection sees the return of some familiar members of the Robertson company, including Strindberg -- heading, as usual, towards calamity -- and the shape-shifter Dionysus. Four loose retellings of stories of the Greek god form pillars for the book, alongside four short Ovid versions. Threaded through these are a series of pieces about the poet's childhood on the north-east coast, his fascination with the sea and the islands of Scotland. However, the reader will also discover a distinct new note in Robertson's austere but ravishing poetry: towards the possibility of contentment -- a house, a door, a key -- finding, at last, a 'happiness of the hand and heart'. Magisterial in its command and range, indelibly moving and memorable in its speech, Hill of Doors is Robin Robertson's most powerful book to date.
Invigorating. . Some poems are as satisfying as novels - but the fullness is always achieved through simplicity -- Kate Kellaway * Observer *
A superb myth-fuelled poetry collection' * Daily Telegraph *
Thematically, Hill of Doors is of a piece with Robertson's superb 2010 collection The Wrecking Light, which was shortlisted for the big three prizes ... There are similar dreamscapes, abandoned houses, echoes of an extinguished human presence reclaimed by nature, and a similarly flinty beauty to the imagery' * Guardian *
Keys of all kinds loom large in a collection that mixes pin-sharp childhood memories in Scotland with re-workings of Greek * Sunday Telegraph *
packed with fine individual poems, highly varied in form, theme and style . . . outstanding . . . superb . . . The more you read, the more connections emerge, and the more one poem lights up the depths of another. -- Edmund Prestwich * The North Magazine *
A superb myth-fuelled poetry collection' * Daily Telegraph *
Thematically, Hill of Doors is of a piece with Robertson's superb 2010 collection The Wrecking Light, which was shortlisted for the big three prizes ... There are similar dreamscapes, abandoned houses, echoes of an extinguished human presence reclaimed by nature, and a similarly flinty beauty to the imagery' * Guardian *
Keys of all kinds loom large in a collection that mixes pin-sharp childhood memories in Scotland with re-workings of Greek * Sunday Telegraph *
packed with fine individual poems, highly varied in form, theme and style . . . outstanding . . . superb . . . The more you read, the more connections emerge, and the more one poem lights up the depths of another. -- Edmund Prestwich * The North Magazine *
Robin Robertson is from the north-east coast of Scotland. He has published six previous books of poetry and received various accolades, including the Petrarca-Preis, the E.M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and all three Forward Prizes. His last book, The Long Take – a narrative poem set in post-war America – won the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, the Goldsmiths Prize for innovative fiction, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize., Robin Robertson is from the north-east coast of Scotland. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he has published six books of poetry and received a number of accolades, including the Petrarca-Preis, the E.M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and all three Forward Prizes. His selected poems, Sailing the Forest, came out in 2014. The Long Take won the Roehampton Poetry Prize, the Goldsmiths Prize for Fiction and the Walter Scott Prize, and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781447231530 |
| ISBN 10 | 1447231538 |
| Title | Hill of Doors |
| Author | Robin Robertson |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Pan Macmillan |
| Year published | 2013-02-28 |
| Number of pages | 96 |
| Prizes | Short-listed for T. S. Eliot Prize 2014 (UK), Short-listed for Costa Poetry Award 2014 (UK) |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |